China’s tech giant Baidu has forged a strategic partnership with Lenovo to incorporate its cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology into Lenovo’s smartphone lineup.
This collaboration highlights Baidu’s ongoing endeavours to explore practical applications for its AI innovations, marking yet another significant venture with a leading phone manufacturer.
A spokesperson from Baidu’s headquarters in Beijing revealed this week that the partnership involves Lenovo leveraging its ‘Ernie’ large language model (LLM), echoing similar alliances recently announced with Samsung and Honor.
The trend of integrating generative AI features into smartphones, enabling services like chatbots and real-time translation, has been gaining momentum worldwide. This surge in interest follows the widespread adoption of the technology since the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022.
Lenovo, known for its range of branded phones and ownership of Motorola, has already integrated Ernie into the browser and app store apps of its personal computers and tablets.
Google remains a frontrunner in AI smartphones with its Pixel phones and robust cloud-based AI capabilities. Meanwhile, there are reports indicating Apple’s active pursuit of integrating generative AI models into future iterations of the iPhone.
